Made in Germany: Your Business Magazine

By DW.COM | Deutsche Welle

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In a rapidly changing world, MADE in Germany examines the risks and benefits of digitalization and its impact on the way we work, what we earn and how we live. The program also investigates the ethics of business, and showcases young entrepreneurs who are redefining the workplace. Instead of just crunching the numbers, MADE delves deeper into issues and also explores the emotional side to stories.

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CleanVideoKrieger - Merry Christmas!

Is there any way to avoid seasonal spending? Perhaps not. But there's more to Christmas than commerce. Olaf Krieger celebrates his own way.

At the moment, property investors are being drawn to Berlin like bees to honey. They’re renovating buildings and hiking rent, pricing out long-term residents. Many feel like they're being forced out of the city. But they're not going quietly.

It's a small, cheap component – and it's essential for industry: the resistor. Electrical resistance is essential in devices from light bulbs to power lines. A simple relationship describing resistance was discovered by physicist Georg Simon Ohm.

Italians are fed up with austerity, and Rome challenged Brussels' authority with its 2019 budget. What does the Italian business community think of the government's current fiscal policy - and the public mood? MADE goes to Italy to find out.

What to do when you can't sleep at night? Count sheep? Well if you're Olaf KRIEGER you hit the town. And he’s clearly not alone - it feels like the whole city is awake. Don't waste your time, make the most of your nights!

Lawyer Pamela Pabst is blind. In the courtroom she's unable to assess photos or other visual evidence. But what she lacks in eyesight, she more than makes up for with her other senses. As a result she's been very successful in her chosen career.

Billions of people don't have access to high-speed internet. Many live in remote regions without cable or fiber-optic broadband. But laser beams can reach anywhere. The German startup Mynaric is sending information round the world by laser beam.

It's been more than a century since the first lightbulbs lit up our homes. Today we can use our smartphones to regulate LEDs all over the house: to make them brighter, more colorful, to automatically switch on or off. Light has become smart.

The global population is exploding, cities are mushrooming and more farmland is needed. So why not turn high-rise buildings into greenhouses, with the latest LED lamps providing light? A huge opportunity for traditional light bulb manufacturers.

They can't read or write, but they're learning to become entrepreneurs. After undergoing training at Barefoot College in India, 60 women from all over the world will return to their villages, with the skills to install and repair solar systems.

Many consider vegetarians the new superheroes. They eat no meat and so have a reduced carbon footprint. But is that really true? An avocado can actually do more damage to the environment than a steak. Environmental vegetarianism – fact or fiction?

Meat is in many cases an indicator of prosperity. That's because consumers generally choose which meat they want, how much they eat and where and how it's produced - a cheap product from the supermarket or higher-priced meat from ethical farming.

A whole chicken may cost less than three euros at a German supermarket, while an ethically farmed equivalent could set you back ten euros or more. So what's the difference? How do farmers set their profit margins and what pressure are they under?

Seborga in Italy is a village that wants to be an independent country. It has its very own prince and princess, its own currency, even its own coat of arms. Most of its residents are in favor of independence, not least to escape the economic crisis.

If all German adults received €1,000 a month no strings attached, they would live happier lives. That's the theory at least. But opponents say universal basic income would only encourage laziness. We hear both sides of the argument.

Top athletes are under considerable pressure to succeed. And only those who can deal with that constant pressure have a chance of getting funding. Speed skater and Olympic participant Bente Pflug tells her story.

If you work hard, it’ll pay off. Is that really true? In many countries, income inequality is growing. While movie stars and top bank executives are paid millions, back-breaking work is often poorly remunerated.

What is to be done when high-flying corporate types become bitter and twisted and spit venom at each other? Or when underlings dig in their heels as bosses impose their bright new ideas? Call in the cavalry – in the form of coach Ines Eulzer.

It’s a term used to describe innovations that have the ability to destroy entire fields. Airbnb capitalization has overtaken that of big hotel chains, autonomous cars could soon put taxi drivers out of business. Who will win, and who will lose?

Human beings are often assessed according to their economic value – when doctors transplant organs, for example, or athletes insure their legs for huge sums, or companies employ staff. What at first sounds absurd is in fact standard practice.

Having a dignified funeral in Europe can cost thousands – more than many people can afford. Now a young Berlin start-up called Mymoria is looking to undercut standard funeral companies by offering services online.

Daniel Eltinger paints with a vengeance, but it hardly pays the rent. Like many young artists, he dreams of being discovered one day. If star art dealer Gerd Harry Lybke signs you up, for example you're already halfway to making it.

US attorney Kenneth Feinberg calculates the value of human life. It's his job to distribute compensation following attacks or disasters. The amount given varies greatly according to the value assigned to the victim. 9/11 was his biggest case to date.

More than 60,000 inmates in Germany are required to work while in prison. They earn up to three euros an hour maximum – way below the national minimum wage. For big corporations like Daimler or Aldi they're a source of cheap labor.

Björk and Tom both attend schools in Germany. The system is supposed to be egalitarian. But she has access to the latest technology at her private school, while at his public school not even the fire safety equipment works properly.

5G is set to revolutionize mobile connectivity. It's ten times faster than 4G. The new network is expected to support up to a million connections per square kilometer. Is it really as big as it seems? We take a closer look.

Some engineers are leaving Germany for Vietnam, one of Asia's fastest growing economies. We speak with two people who used to work for German companies and are now helping to produce the first automobile entirely 'Made in Vietnam'.

Germany's cities are growing. In Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, average earners can't find affordable apartments. Rents are rising and hundreds of would-be tenants compete for flats. The situation has forced some to take up residence in garden huts.

Those who can't stop complaining about Germans and Germany need to look at some cold, hard facts. Unemployment here is hovering around just 5%, taxes are rolling in, and the government is €36 billion in the black.

In the midst of an increasingly networked Europe, Germany is falling behind. Fiber-optic coverage for high-speed internet is lacking. That's not only an annoyance for users; it's dangerous for the country's future as a center for industry.

A startup in Berlin is working on a kite that generates electricity as it soars. It's the pulling on the cord that does it. The firm needs investors, technological prowess, and a keen eye on the competition.

A brewery in Brussels makes beer out of unsold loaves, picking up on a 4000-year-old recipe from Babylon. It's recycling on a modest scale, but it might set a precedent. The brew is bitter but tasty, they say.

Bechstein's bat is a protected species. A court has ruled that a windpark in Germany has to shut down at night so as not to endanger a colony of the bats. DW discusses the issues with Wilhelm Wilberts, who runs a company that operates such facilities.

This year's World Cup has a female commentator in Germany for the first time. Social media reacted with scorn and sexism. That's typical, says Cristina Cubas. Why aren't female sports journalists taken seriously?

Charlie Thomas invests big sums of his customers' money. They're increasingly demanding sustainable investments, but ones that still give returns. How does he resolve this contradiction? Isn't an investment manager supposed to make money at all costs?

When money's tight, there's a big difference between buying essentials and non-essentials. If a handbag is too expensive, we just do without. But what happens if basic essentials, like food, become too expensive?

The German industrial group has been in trouble for years. The idea now is to break it into two new companies. Dissent on the boards has led to high-level departures. Will workers suffer? Will profits rise? Is the plan convincing?

Rampaging rightwing extremists attacking the police and people they took to be foreigners has tarnished the eastern German city's image. That could be bad for business. So businesspeople there want to sell Chemnitz as tolerant and welcoming.

The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is open. People in the towns on either side move freely back and forth; goods too cross unchecked. This is thanks to the European single market. But Brexit could change it all.

You can buy units of cryptocurrencies with real money and manage them via your smartphone. You can buy all kinds of things with them online. There are almost 2,000 cryptocurrencies nowadays. How do they work?

If the dog has eaten your homework and your money, you can get replacement banknotes from the central bank, at least in the eurozone, but only if more than half of each one is still there. But the homework you will have to reconstitute yourself.

Mainstream banks have been wary of cryptocurrencies and distributed-ledger technology. But some now have task forces investigating their possible uses and benefits. Anja Bedford, a.k.a Ms Crypto, explores the future for Deutsche Bank in London.

Might cryptocurrencies replace regular ones? Agustin Carstens of the Bank for International Settlements has called cryptocurrencies a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster. Robert Küfner has made millions with bitcoins and thinks they are great.

Bitcoin burst onto the scene in 2009 as the first cryptocurrency. It was created as a purportedly safe alternative to the crisis-prone banking system. Mainstream investors and banks now toy with cryptocurrencies. What has become of the original idea?

Can you imagine following a cheery chirpy birdy around a store? No, nor can I. But virtual shopping assistants like this are being developed. They are meant to learn what customers want - or could be persuaded to want.

Interviewing job applicants takes lots of time. Evaluations and outcomes often seem rather arbitrary. But there is software that speeds things up. Some claim the results are more 'objective' and free-of-bias.

Financial analyst Luis Miguel Sanchez lost his job on 15 September, 2008. He had believed his employer was "too big to fail." The insolvency cost him his livelihood. What happened to him after the bankruptcy? DWs Maya Shwayder visited him in New York.

Countries like Greece and Italy are still suffering from the fall-out of the debt crisis. In 2008, Iceland was also facing bankruptcy. But today its economy is booming – thanks, in part, to tourism. How did they do it?

DW style guru Gerhard Elfers recommends steering clear of cheap suits, if possible. His advice is to buy good quality garments secondhand or when they're on offer. But if you do have a cheap suit, all is not lost.

Germany’s second-largest lender Commerzbank has been pushed out of the country’s blue chip stock index by a small fintech firm called Wirecard. The trailblazing company has grown in leaps and bounds since being set up in 1999.

Why was Lehman Brothers the only bank that wasn't too big to fail? The economist Laurence M. Ball claims, the US FED could have saved Lehman Brothers and avoided the extreme consequences of the financial crisis.

Everyone is frightened of something – afraid of professional failure or of change, or perhaps of heights or spiders. To confront those fears and relinquish control can be liberating. Olaf Krieger shows you how.

People are increasingly seeking to protect their private data. At the same time, many governments block websites they don't want their citizens to access. Zenmate is a startup that sells encryption and VPN services that anonymize users.

The EU wants to cut off the flow of money to tax havens like the Caribbean island of Anguilla, which has more offshore companies than inhabitants. European authorities now want a list of who owns them.

Leaders on state visits often dress up in the traditional clothing of their host country. That can misfire, says DWs Gerhard Elfers, and cites the example of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to India.

With 900 employees – 100 of them refugees – Markus Winter did what politicians wanted him to do a few years ago. The head of an SME hired migrants and trained them. But now he could lose them at any time to deportation.

Many Venezuelans have left the country since 2015. Among those fleeing the crisis at home, some have ended up in the German capital, where they struggle to earn money and get an EU passport. Two Venezuelans in Berlin talked to DW about starting over.

There aren't many women in motor racing. But they can change the oil, develop cars, drive them and race them as well as any man. That's what former racing driver Susie Wolff tells us in our ‘Don't Call Me Bossy!’ series.

Robots manufacturing automatically, 3-D printers building entire cities. Will everyone be unemployed in future? Many futurologists don’t think so. They say we'll actually have more opportunities to be creative and work for the common interest.

Shallow hierarchies, pals with the boss, working hours adapted to family life and as much holiday as you want. Is that a hipster's pipe dream? Or the corporate future? We ask some young entrepreneurs in Berlin.

The head of Germany's Confederation of Trade Unions Reiner Hoffmann shares his thoughts with us on the future of labor, and the working conditions of what he calls a new digital proletariat. He wants to see fair play for independent contractors.

What's that about? Digital jobs are distributed on Internet platforms. They've given rise to an entirely new terminology. Cloudworker. Crowdworker. Gig worker or Clickworker. Here’s a rundown of what they mean.